As technology progresses, it is becoming increasingly common for software applications to be provided to users according to a Software as a Service (SaaS) model where software applications are hosted at a central computing platform and accessed by a user via the Internet, as opposed to a traditional software model where software applications are installed directly onto a user's computer. Software applications that are provided according to a SaaS model may sometimes be referred to as on-demand software, web-based software, or hosted software.
When the SaaS model first emerged, software providers typically hosted their on-demand software in a physical computing infrastructure (e.g., servers, storage devices, network infrastructure, etc.) that was owned and operated by the software providers themselves. However, it is now becoming increasingly common for software providers to host their on-demand software in an Internet Area Network (IAN), such as a public, private, or hybrid cloud, that is owned and operated by a third-party provider. One well-known provider of IANs is Amazon Web Services (AWS), which offers on-demand hardware resources that can be used by software providers to host their on-demand software.
For a software provider, there are several benefits to hosting on-demand software in an IAN provided by a third party, rather than in a physical computing infrastructure owned and operated by the software provider. For instance, by using an IAN provided by a third party, a software provider can avoid the need to purchase, manage, and support its own physical computing infrastructure. Relatedly, when a software provider uses an IAN provided by a third party, hardware resources (e.g., compute resources, storage space, etc.) may be dynamically assigned to the software provider on an as-needed basis rather than being preassigned to the software provider in a dedicated manner, which typically reduces cost for the software provider and leads to a more efficient use of such resources overall.